bigglesfandomcom-20200215-history
Hassan Sekunder
In Biggles and the Plot That Failed, Hassan Sekunder was the partner of Adrian Mander in an expedition to locate a lost tomb in the Libyan desert. Sekunder's nationality was never confirmed although he claimed to be an Egyptian and an archaeologist who had worked for the Egyptian Archaeological Society. This claim was, however, later found to be false. Sekunder first met Adrian Mander at an archaeological dig in Jordan supervised by Sir Cedric Goodall. He told Adrian that he knew the location of the lost tomb of the ancient Tuareg king Ras Tenazza located a few hundred miles south of Siwa. Sekunder had once done some work at Siwa and while there had treated an Arab for some disease. The Arab shared the story of the tomb's location with him. When Sekunder saw that Adrian was a pilot and owned a plane, he suggested a joint expedition with each of them taking half of the treasure or other artefacts discovered at the tomb. Adrian believed Sekunder's story and accepted the proposal. The two flew out to Siwa and then southwards. Upon the discovery of the tomb, Sekunder flew off in the aircraft, abandoning Adrian to die of thirst. As Biggles, who was called in to investigate later discovered, Sekunder knew something of flying as he told Adrian, he never qualified. The purpose of Sekunder's treachery was to reach and contact another explorer, one Nakish Bolzana to join him in an expedition to open the tomb. Bolzana had a petrol driven drill which would be needed for the operation. Sekunder did not tell Bolzana that he had already made an agreement with Adrian and most certainly did not mention the theft of Adrian's plane. When Sekunder and Bolzana reached the site of the tomb, Adrian had already been rescued by Biggles, Ginger and Bertie. Adrian, who had gone out to scout the arrival of Bolzana's caravan, was spotted by Sekunder. Adrian decided to play along and pretend he was happy to see him again and knew he would come back. Sekunder could not do otherwise than welcome Adrian without alerting the suspicions of Bolzana. However, Sekunder and Adrian soon quarreled over the division of the spoils. Adrian insisted the previous 50:50 arrangement with him stood but Sekunder said it was impossible as he had already promised a half share to Bolzana. It is possible this latter claim was false. Bolzana was an honest dealer and declared all his discoveries to the Egyptian government in return for fair compensation. He could not have accepted an offer of a half share. Presumably, as Biggles would latter surmise, Sekunder planned to keep everything for himself, and dish out the same fate to Bolzana as he tried to give to Adrian. Be that as it may, Sekunder order the Tuareg caravan drivers to tie Adrian up. How that could be done without causing Bolzana to become suspicious is a matter of surmise. Thereafter, Sekunder sought out Biggles (Adrian had mentioned that Biggles had come to look for him) and told him that Adrian had decided to stay with his caravan and that Biggles could therefore return home. Biggles did not believe this and followed him back to his camp where he, Ginger and Bertie cut Adrian free. This could not, of course, have been done without Sekunder noticing. But at that time he was too engrossed in the excavation which was on the brink of cutting a sizeable opening into the tomb. Sekunder probably also wanted to avoid a confrontation, which might have involved violence. As it was, it was Sekunder's impatience that was his undoing. Once an opening had been made, he hurriedly stuck his hand into the tomb and was bitten by a scorpion. With Sekunder out of action, Biggles had an opportunity to exchange notes with Bolzana. The latter was horrified to hear of Adrian's account and concluded that Sekunder was a liar and a scoundrel. Bolzana told Biggles he would use his influence in Egypt to see that Sekunder was never allowed into Egypt again. One at a time, the list of Sekunder's treacherous deeds emerged. Bolzana described how, after their caravan had come across and then left untouched Biggles' supply dump at El Arig, Sekunder had excused himself and gone off for a while. It appeared that he had gone back to sabotage the supplies, which included half of Biggles' reserve of fuel. Sekunder sabotaged these stores even when, at that time, he didn't know about Biggles and what he was doing. Biggles also surmised that Sekunder might have spread lies or rumours to persuade Bolzana's Tuareg caravan drivers to desert the caravan, leaving him alone. Sekunder also admitted that he had set fire to Adrian's aircraft after landing at Siwa in order to eliminate evidence. To spare Bolzana the risk of travelling alone with such a dangerous travelling companion, Biggles flew Sekunder to Siwa. There, apparently not suffering as much from the scorpion sting as he seemed, he simply melted away into the crowd and was not seen again. Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:Air Police era characters